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Saturday, December 17, 2011

25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Series: Day 17

Fun and Festive Holiday Snow Globes/Mini Jar Cloches

We have all seen a ton of those little faux snow globes all over the blogs and Pin Interest. You know the ones...made with mason jars with little snowy scenes inside? Most of them do not have water in them, so I am hesitant to call them just snow globes because they are more like Mini Jar Cloches. Don't you think?! Anyway, I was wanting to tackle this project with my own twist or vision on it. So here is what I did.

Collected up some supplies...little pretties and a few Dollar Store jars and couple of jars I picked up at Goodwill because I thought the triangular shape of them was different.

I cut a circular piece of Styrofoam out and made sure that the circumference of it, once glued to the lid would still allow the jar to close.

The thickness of the circle is flexible. Just make sure that
it isn't so thick that it takes up too much space in the jar once
closed, but thick enough to stabilize the materials when stuck
into the Styrofoam.

Before you glue the Styrofoam disk down to the inside of the lid, create you mini snowy scene using hot glue to stabilize the elements.

I added the AC Moore snowman first
and then built the area around him varying the height and
the visual weight of the other elements around him.

A little froggy is stuck in the snow along with
jingle bells and candy. Finished the background
with a Dollar Store snowflake. I will be adding
snow to this scene later, so I glued the jingle bells
to little floral sticks, so they would
show above the snow.

This darling owl is from Pier One Imports. I
placed a little snowy Dollar Store tree and a
few little picks and baubles,
and shake of glitter in with him.

Now it was time to glue the Styrofoam down to the inside of the lid. Important Tip! My jars are slightly square with panels on all four sides for looking in. I had to make sure and hot glue the base down in a position that once the jar was screw closed, my scene would be facing in that direction. So before the hot glue set up, I placed the jar over the top and adjusted the placement. Pay attention to this detail!

I added a handful of bagged fresh fallen snow, closed up the lid. Done. Here are my results...

I also wanted to show you what I can up with for my Goodwill jars. I used these jars standing upright because I liked their lids and I wanted to do something different with these two jars. I made a simple snowy tree motif with a few jingle bells in the jar because they are tall and narrow. I then finished off the top with a few leftover birdies from my Bird Nest Ornament Project, a pick and a small bow. Here are the results.

Fun afternoon project that is easily customized for a friend who like....well, frogs! Or for myself, who likes....owls! Yeah me!

We are getting down to the wire friends. I am sure you all are in full holiday mode and busy busy busy. I know I am. The remainder of the projects are geared toward just that. I will finish this week off with quick tips and ideas that might help you in the pinch.

Your jars have the look of viewing the snowy scene in a window! It's like a NY Macy's Christmas window!!Darling. Love them all. I should do this with the girls later next week. Those tall GW jars turned out gorgeous! You should turn this into an ebook for next year! Deb